Happy New Year!

It's 2009! This is going to be a big year, this year I will get married! In fact our wedding is less then 6 months away, that is amazing!

Happy New years everyone, I hope it finds you blessed, content, and filled with all the richness of God's grace.

Hmm

After a wrote that blog last night I began to realize how much I myself am messing up. I call myself a Christian, someone who is supposed to be an example for Christ to the world, yet all I was doing was being that stereotypical judgmental Christian. The thing is, my family members are not walking with God for a reason, and they all have a reason for trying to be so macho, so really my mindset, and really my focus in general, should not be one of superiority but one of love.
I have failed to do that as of late, but when God brings something like this to my attention, it is mandatory that I do something about it. So I am.

Visiting family

So the realization just came to me, that most of my extended family, is quite annoying. A lot of the guys here are trying to impress, or make themselves seem like such awesome people, and they do so by bragging about how they drink, steal, or about the various women they are in contact with. Now Donna and I both like my family, she loves my brothers, sister and my parents, but she, like me, are kind of tired of the rest of the guys here.

But at the same time they are family, so while they may drive me crazy, I'm stuck with them.

Anyway, Christmas was awesome, and I am looking forward to New Years, and going back to CA.

5 more days!

As the trip to GA gets closer, I get more and more excited. I really miss my family and am looking forward to seeing all of them. It's rough, it's been about a year since I've seen my folks and Daniel, and about 9 months since I've seen Kathleen, Adam, and Sophie, and about that same amount of time since I've seen Brandon. So for me the excitement is growing.

However, I know that this has got to be rough for Donna, this is going to be her first Christmas away from her family, and not only that but she is going to have to stay with a lot of people that she doesn't even know, and since she doesn't always like meeting new people this probably adds to her nervousness.
I just hope she'll understand that while she is leaving her family to visit mine, that she in reality is going to still be with family, because she is going to be, in about 6 months, a Glaize, and they are looking forward to loving her, if for no other reason than because I love her.

Now on a lighter note, my Mom gave me a list of meals that she is going to be making for us while we are there, and let me tell you, just the thought of them makes me drool a little bit, we're gonna have, roast beef, Lasagna, homemade Chicken Pot Pie, Steak, and so much more, and I for one am excited about that.

This is going to be a great Christmas, the last Christmas that I will be a non married man. That's an interesting and exciting thought!

That good man Joseph

I must say I am really beginning to feel for Joseph, the husband of Mary, especially now that I am madly in love with and betrothed to be married to Donna. Joseph was betrothed to Mary, and was getting ready to marry his beautiful bride when all of the sudden it turns out that she is pregnant. I cannot imagine the hurt that he must had initially felt, if all of the sudden Donna came to me and told me "I'm pregnant, but don't worry it's from the Holy Spirit." I would feel betrayed, and really angry that she would then try to blame God for what happened. Yet Joseph loved Mary, and God, enough that while he felt hurt, betrayed, and most likely angry, instead of having her be stoned to death, he decided to just put her away in secret, not wanting to expose Mary's shame.
That's love, and and I'm sure that's part of the reason that God chose Mary, because He knew what kind of man Joseph was. He loved Mary in the way that God intends all us men to love our lives.

I will say though It's good that God appeared to him in a dream and let him know that this pregnancy thing was legit.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love Christmas! I love the whole season. The Christmas carols, everything being decorated with trees, lights and even the Santa Clauses, heck I even love the Christmas movies and television programs.

I especially love the fact that I am going to be able to see my family again this Christmas, after about a year of not seeing them, I am finally going to see my family, and Donna is finally going to get a chance to meet them. That is going to be awesome.

On an unrelated note I must say that almost immediately after posting that last blog, God and I have been doing a lot better. I've found myself lately just looking forward to reading God's word, and not wanting to stop once I start. It is quite nice. I love it.

Intimancy

It's what everyone longs for. We all at some point desire to be in an intimate relationship with someone. I have in many ways found that in Donna, and I am extremely happy with that. But as of late, I have come to realize that I really desire to have an intimate relationship with God.
See the more I fall in love with Donna, the more I realize just how much God loves me, yet at the same time I for the most part lack that relationship. I want Him to be my desire more than anything else, I want Him to be my passion, my love and my life completely, not just a part. But it's not there, there is a lack, and I'm finding that the more knowledge that I receive about Him only causes me to want to know Him on a personal level even more, but I don't know how.

I know that there is soo much more, I know that there is an intimacy with God that He desires me to have. But the fact is I don't have it, and I just don't know how to get to that point. I love God, the forgiveness and grace of Jesus is something that I cherish, but I want more. I don't want God to be there just so I can pray to Him when I am in need, I want intimacy, but I don't know where to go or how to get it. I see the examples in the Bible of men like Peter, or Paul, and examples just though people in my life, and I see that on some level they have a certain depth to their relationship that I lack.

Father I want more of you, and I don't care what you must do to me or in me, if it is going to cause me to know you more, then I am more than willing.